Zodiac: Year of the Dragon
by Zori-chan
Summary: Witches exist, hiding among humans. And in a coven of 12 witches known only as the Zodiac hangs the balance of the world. Now it is time for the power to be passed on to a new generation of Zodiacs, along with all the hell that comes with it.
1. Prologue: Passing On

**(A/N: well here's the first chapter to a little plot bunny thats been running around the meadows of my mind and nibbling on the grass of my imagination. Review if you want, hopefully the next chapters will be better and I promise that they'll be a lot longer than this little prologue.)**

**Full Summary:**

12 seemingly ordinary teenagers learn a shocking secret when they're estranged, "crazy" grandmothers die. They are witches, part of a special coven known as Zodiac. Each witch represents an animal of the chinese Zodiac, and a constelation of the astrological Zodiac. They are entrusted with keeping the balance in the world, between good and evil. But what happens when one refuses to accept his heritage? Or when someone on the outside tampers with the young Coven to tip the balance? And even more important: what if Witches were in danger if being exposed to the modern world?

**Enjoy**

* * *

Cold, icy wind lashed against the windows of the run-down old house. Weeds, vines, and other things of the forest had become overgrown around the house. The house itself was in Victorian style, with peeling paint, broken windows and rusty hinges. The once-beautiful house was now in ruins, with parts of the roof caving in. Deep inside the house, down in the old cellar, twelve old women were sitting around a table with lit candles all around them.

"Well…it won't be long now…" the woman at the head of the table sighed. "Soon we shall pass on, and it shall be up to them to embrace what they are, learn how to control themselves and uphold the balance of the world."

"But Meredith…shouldn't we tell them beforehand? Give them some training?" another woman fretted.

Meredith narrowed an eye, "There was a time when yes, we could have told them what they are, trained them. But that time ended centuries ago when it became dangerous to be one of our kind. It is better for them to discover on their own, and learn themselves how to control their power. Besides, there are things we cannot teach them. Each new generation interprets their powers in different ways. You know this, Rosalind."

Another old women with striking green eyes spoke, "But what if they do not embrace? What if they reject? The balance would be threatened!"

"Someone could try to take advantage of them!"

"One might be foolish enough to reveal themselves!"

"They could abuse their power!"

"We must prepare them!"

The aged voices of the women overlapped as they argued over what to do. Meredith, who seemed to be the leader struggled to make her voice heard. "Stop! Silence! Be quiet you crones!! By the Mother Goddess, shut UP!"

The rest of the women fell into an uneasy silence as Meredith continued. "Now, this is the year of the Dragon, therefore the next Dragon shall be the first to emerge. We will not directly tell them- in this day and age, they'd probably only laugh at us anyway. No, we shall send dreams instead. Dreams that shall not cease until they're powers arrive, until they are ready to be what they are: Witches of the Zodiac."

Rosalind's soft voice floated through, "So what spell shall we use then?"

"_Somnium Carmen_," Meredith replied as she stood up, the other witches following her lead as she placed her gemstone and a small dragon pendent in a wooden bowl. Each witch put ground up flowers of their constellation into the bowl, along with their gemstone and a pendent of their Zodiac animal then Meredith lit it all on fire. "Now as they smoke rises to the sky at this bewitching hour of midnight, here at the night where the moon is hidden, let us say our spell."

"_Dragon, Snake, Horses, Ram , Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, Rat ,Ox, Tiger, and Rabbit  
__Convenio huic nox noctis of vox__  
Transporto ut somnium cuius nos votum transmitto  
Ut they can complexo neque nec verto acidus__  
Permissum praesagus visum in suum somnium adsum__  
Licentia lemma non , jugis vos may exsisto ,  
Insquequo they have they es quis nos es huic hora!"_

When the witches chant was over, there was a bright flash and the objects in the bowl were gone.

"It is done. In twelve days we shall be no more, and the balance in the world rests in the hands of the new Zodiacs."

"Are you not concerned that four of them are…males?"

"It has been generations, centuries since there has been a male in our little group. I think its time for a little change don't you think? Besides, male witches are rare enough. And the girls will need someone to boss around," Meredith replied with a small smirk.

Far away from their little meeting place, twelve high school students suddenly found their dreams filled with constellations, animals, figures reciting spells, and the most important element of all: magic.


	2. Chapter 1: Death and Dreams

**(A/N: so here's the next one to introduce one of the main characters. The next chapter will re-introduce the Zodiacs and blah blah blah. But doesn't my main char have such a nice little quirk?)**

Piper Willows sighed as she stared outside her window. The world was mocking her with its bright clear sky, warm sun and blooming flowers when more than anything it should be raining and miserable on a day such as this. Today was a day of sorrow, not beauty. Today, she hated the world for taking away her grandmother.

"Piper! Its time to go!" her mother called from the bottom of the stairs.

With another sigh, Piper stood up and gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror, applying a little blush and mascara, and a little lipgloss before she deemed herself ready. Piper was a slim, 15 year old girl with an appearance that many told her was pixie or fairy-like. Her white-blond hair was pulled back into a high pony-tail instead of providing the curtain that it usually did, with locks of hair framing her pale face. In Piper's opinion, there was nothing remotely beautiful about her except for her eyes, which were a brilliant green, swirling pools of jade, emerald and forest green. She straightened her black dress and her silver necklace and carefully walked down the stairs in her black pumps. She hated being so dressed up but...it was all for her grandmother.

"What took you so long? We're going to be late!" Her mother practically dragged her into the car, but not before Piper slipped a pad and pencil into her purse.

"Now some other families may be there as my mother, God rest her soul, insisted on being buried alongside some old friends of her. Tragic really, they all just seemed to die all around the same time. But it was they're time to go- I heard they were all going a bit batty." Piper's mother continued to ramble and Piper nodded slightly, letting her attention drift away.

Piper's grandmother was estranged from their family, they'd gotten in a big argument a number of years ago, just before the accident that killed Piper's father and left Piper without her voice. Piper had only seen her Grandma Meredith only a few times since then, and the accident had been ten years ago. And each time she saw her grandmother, she seemed strange and eccentric, always believing in herbal remedies and saying that one day one of those remedies would bring back her voice. The idea was preposterous though, if doctors couldn't figure out why her voice was gone why should some stupid herbs help? No amount of therapy, medicine, brain scans or any type of doctor could explain or fix her inability to speak. Then recently, her grandmother's health started deteriorating until she died in her sleep.

She couldn't even tell her grandmother goodbye.

Piper hadn't been to a funeral before, well at least not one that she could remember. She thought she'd been to her fathers but she wasn't sure. She wished her father was alive though, because she hated all the men her mom went out with now.

"Piper? Piper! Are you listening to me?"

Piper was jerked out of her thoughts and shook her head in a "no" gesture.

Her mother sighed, "As I was saying, some press reporters might be there. The entire town is shocked that twelve women who were close friends and estranged from their families all died within a week of each other. The press is supposed to be kept out, but you never know about these people. Hopefully this won't take long, I have an appointment with her dermatologist this afternoon..."

Piper nodded again, but she knew that her mother was really going to get botox injections to look younger- she just didn't want Piper to know(as if it wasn't obvious enough already). Piper hated how superficial her mother could be sometimes. They were polar opposites. Stacy Willows cared about her looks- her hair, her skin, her clothes, all those things. She always tried to be "in style" and she'd been in all the popular cliques in high school. Piper just wanted to be invisible to the high school world. She didn't care about her looks, just as long as she was happy with herself. At the same time she didn't want to attract attention and ridicule from the cruel popular girls of high school. Stacy also wanted her daughter to be an Olympic gymnast as that had been her dream long ago and she believed her daughter could do it. Even though Piper was a decent gymnast, she wanted to be a writer.

The car stopped and Piper and her mother stepped out into the cemetery. For such a depressing place, it was actually quite beautiful. There were flowers and other things among all the gravestones. Yet another thing that contradicted the purpose of the day. It should be an ugly day, and a cemetery should be an ugly place.

The service itself took place at the church, since in their wills, the deceased women had requested that in the event two or more of them died around the same time, that they be buried together in a joint service. The families were gathered at a place up on the hill of the cemetery that had few gravestones so there was enough room for all of them, and the twelve caskets were lined up and ready to be buried.

Piper didn't listen to the minister as he spoke. He didn't know her grandmother, or any of these other ladies so nothing he could say could have any meaning or worth. He only spoke empty words, however well-intended those words may be. Piper looked around and recognized quite a few faces from her school. She should have realized that that would have been the case, it was a small town that they all lived in so it should be no surprise that their grandmother's were friends. Up towards the front she saw Ashton Nakahara and his younger sister Leiko. For once Leiko's hair wasn't died bright and colorful, but black with dark violet tips. Leiko was a year older than Piper, a sophemore at their school. Ashton, her handsome blond brother, was a freshman at a community college even though he probably could have gone somewhere much better. Piper saw Blade Steele off towards the sides with his family. Blade was the quiet trouble maker in the school; he'd just moved here to live with his aunts after getting expelled from nearly every other school up in the city where his parents lived. Some of her classmates she knew only by face, but some were the snobby preppy girls that she usually tried to avoid.

Finally, the service was over and the families paid their respects. True to their grandmothers' wills, the family laid the flowers requested in their wills. Each flower corresponded with the old woman's birth flower. _These old ladies were rather strange...but still, they seemed to have been close. I don't have any close friends. People always feel to much pity for me, _she thought bitterly. The caskets were lowered into the ground, and the women were entombed forever into the earth.

The families stood around, making small talk with one another but Piper could tell from their body language that few actually mourned the passing of these strange women, they all thought they were too crazy or into voodoo and the occult. A figure bumped into Piper, nearly knocking her into the ground.

Quick as a flash, a hand shot out and grabbed her wrist before she could fall into the grass. "Oops! Sorry about that!" apologized a light accented voice.

Piper looked up and saw Leiko Nakahara looking at her. Leiko was a tall, slender Japanese-American with the most vivid, electric blue eyes Piper had ever seen. Piper knew she'd been born in Japan but for some reason, her father agreed to move back to her mother's hometown and now drives up to the big city up north every day to work for his company. Ever since then, the Nakahara children have gone to the local schools and most everyone agreed that they were all a little strange, but despite that they also got the most attention from the opposite gender. Must be the exotic foreigner thing, Piper took out her pad and pencil and wrote, "**Its no problem**." then showed the message to Leiko.

Leiko looked at her curiously, "Do I know you?"

Piper wrote again, "**Probably not but we go to the same school**."

"Oh that's right! You're the girl who can't speak!" Leiko suddenly looked sheepish and blushed slightly, "Er...sorry..."

Piper once again handed Leiko the pad, this time with the message, "**Don't worry about it. I get that all the time. Its no big, really**."

"But if you can hear fine, why can't you speak?"

Piper explained it all on the paper and Leiko nodded in understanding. "Well that must really suck. Maybe in the future the doctors will have the technology to help you speak again."

"**Maybe. My grandmother Meredith always told me to try these natural remedies in this book she had at her house, but my mother refused to let me go over. My grandmother was very...well she preferred her own methods of medicine**. "

"Mine was the same way. She had all sorts of crazy beliefs. My mother cut off all ties with her. We haven't spoken to her in...well...not since we moved here."

Piper glanced around and saw that the crowd was dispersing as Ashton called for Leiko, telling her it was time to go.

"I'll see you around Piper!" Leiko called as she ran off with a wave.

Piper gave a small wave back and a slight smile. She turned around and looked for her mother, seeing her trying to detach herself from the minister's conversation. Piper walked over to her mother, tapping her on the shoulder and making a "Can We Go?" face.

Stacy turned towards the minister. "Well Reverend, its been lovely talking to you but its been such a stressful day for my daughter and she needs her rest."

"Of course, Ms. Willows, of course. She'll be in my prayers."

"Thank you, Reverend." Stacy turned away and steered her daughter towards the car and briskly drove off. She dropped Piper off at the house before driving off again for her appointment. She probably had a date coming up.

Piper walked into the empty house and went up to her room. She washed her face and changed into a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and a dark sweatshirt and took her ponytail down. She was more than happy to get out of those painful heels. Piper made herself dinner then curled up on the couch with a good book. It was an enthralling novel by some author she'd never heard of about vampires, witches, werewolves, and shape-shifters. Piper loved stories like this, but her mother hated them and said they'd rot her brain cells. Personally, Piper thought that stories that were completely unrealistic were better for the mind as fantasy allowed it to wander past the depths of reality and let the imagination soar.

After she finished the book, she looked up at the time, seeing that it was later and her mother wasn't yet home. _She probably had a date or something that she didn't tell me about. Or maybe she went on a random shopping spree or did some other thing and forgot to come home. She's so scatterbrained sometimes._ Piper sighed and went upstairs to her room. Her room was rather small and consisted of a desk with a laptop, a bed, a dresser, and bookcases and shelves all around the room(with a stereo and CD's on one shelf). Her desk was cluttered with papers and story ideas. There wasn't any room for her gymnastic trophies, they were in a case out in the main hallway so that any time a guest came, her mother could brag about her daughters achievements and how she'd win the Olympic Gold Medal one day(Piper laughed at the thought).

Piper crawled into bed, but was unable to sleep. She couldn't help but remember the dream that she'd been having for the past couple of weeks, and was worried that she'd have it again. She'd heard of people who said that dreams meant something but Piper didn't believe that, she always thought it was the subconscious sorting out the troubles of the mind so that everyone is less irritable when they're awake. _So what problem do I have the involves a dragon, weird symbols, robed figures chanting, colored smoke, the astrological Zodiac constellations and my dead grandmother telling me to embrace?Ugh, I'm sure its just my imagination gone wild again. Maybe writing about it would help?_Piper always found that strange dreams lead to colorful story ideas and made it easier to have a dreamless sleep. She brought her laptop over and crawled back into bed, setting the computer into her lap and opening Microsoft Word. Her fingers flew across the keys, describing the dream as the gears of her mind worked to come up with a plot, storyline and characters. One word kept coming to mind: Witch.

The chanting and symbols of the dream with all the weird smoke did seem like stuff she'd always read in fantasy novels that deal with witchcraft. Why would she dream about it though? And it was so _vivid, _it was almost like it could really happen. Plus, the eyes of the dragon seemed to be trying to tell her something, but what? And why did her grandmother seem so pleading and desperate?

Piper pushed those thoughts aside and went back to typing as the ideas flew to her mind. Piper loved to write, everything about it fit. It was easy for her, it was fun. This was her voice. Writing was the only way she could speak, and writing about the unexplained, the supernatural, and the fantasies of life seemed to be the only way she could convey the thoughts of her mind.

At around 10:30, she heard the toward open and quite giggling of her mother. Piper rolled her eyes. _She's brought home another guy_. Men were attracted to Stacy Willows like bees to flowers. It was sickening, to Piper, that her mother would bring home all these guys _while she was in the house_! Piper scowled and stopped typing. Her writing muse was gone and her mood permanently ruined. There would be no sleeping now unless she wanted some twisted nightmares.

Piper scowled in disgust. She recognized the guy's voice. It was their new single neighbor from down the street, Harold Warner. Piper's scowl became deeper as she clenched her fists. He'd been hitting on her mom for the past week. They barely knew each other! And now her mom was bringing him home to do God knows what! Piper slammed her laptop shut, then stiffened. The voices were louder now, closer. Piper narrowed her eyes as she heard them sweet-talking each other…but Harold's tone of voice changed suddenly, becoming more apprehensive yet at the same time slightly toneless and trance-like.

"Stacy…do you think that maybe we could be rushing it?"

"Huh? What do you mean? We've been dating-"

"Yeah, I know but its only been a couple dates and we still don't know each other that well. Besides, your daughter is just down the hall. Now that I've thought about it, I'm not too comfortable about doing this right now."

"Well Harold, if you really think it's a bad idea then we'll wait a while."

"Thanks, honey."

His heavy footsteps retreated and she heard two different doors close, her mothers bedroom door and the front door. Piper couldn't believe it. Her mom was dating that creep! But what had come over him just then? One minute he seemed more than happy to follow her mother to the bedroom and then…he came to his senses just like that? It was so weird. Not that she was complaining, though. Smirking slightly, Piper crawled into bed and closed her eyes to sleep. She hoped she have more good luck like that.


	3. Chapter 2: Coincidence or Karma?

**(A/N: Well I finally updated this! I just got this motivation to do SOMETHING since I didn't want to draw/color and there was no one online and I was bored with my MySpace stuff. So here it is. Enjoy. Please review, no flames but constructive criticism is welcome- though I may or may not use that criticism, lolz who knows)**

**

* * *

  
**

**Chapter 2:**

Light filtered in through Piper's window the next morning. She'd already begun to wake but was still disoriented when she remembered the date. Today was Sunday, the day after her grandmother's funeral and the anniversary of her father's death. Life was very cruel indeed. Piper had barely known either of them when Death snatched them from her. It just wasn't fair.

Piper sighed and sat up in her bed, stretching slightly before setting her feet to the floor and standing up. She looked at the time and could have smacked herself. She was going to be late for church! Piper hated going since she felt she could have preached the stupid sermons herself, but she went only because her father had been a devout Christian so she attended only to honor him. Piper took a quick shower and put on some nice clothes while she fixed her hair, brushed her teeth and raced down the stairs. Her mother was waiting for her in the car as she hopped in and they drove off.

One long hour later, Piper was home. Finally. She went up to her room and took out her laptop again. She'd been daydreaming in church(again) and came up with more ideas for chapters of her many stories. She kept these stories secret from her mother as most of them deal with witches and magic. Her mother flipped out a few years back when she wanted to be a witch for Halloween. Piper didn't get what the big deal was anyway, everyone knows that witches aren't real and neither is magic.

A little while later, Piper heard the sound of a big truck coming up their drive way. She looked out her window to see a truck with a U-haul trailer attached to it. _These must be the things grandmother left to us in her will._ Piper turned away and went downstairs as her mother opened the door.

"Just bring everything in here," her mother directed the men as they brought in boxes of things.

Piper noticed one box had a small sticker on it and recognized her grandmother's cramped handwriting on it. She curiously went over to it and inspected it. _Piper_ was written on it, and due to the placement of the small sticker, it was amazing she even found it. Piper glanced up, seeing that her mother was too distracted with the men bringing in the boxes. _This box isn't too heavy or big…and it is meant for me…I think…_ Piper figured that it probably was for her. Her grandmother had been into some New Age things and other things that a couple centuries back would have been called "witchcraft" even though it really wasn't. Her mother never approved of it which is one of the reasons why Piper had barely met Grandmother Meredith. This box probably had things it in that her grandmother knew Stacy wouldn't have approved of for Piper.

Piper sneakily arranged some of the boxes, making it look like she was only making more room for the others being brought in. Then, when her mother's back was turned, she picked up her box and crept upstairs. She slipped it under her bed to inspect it later and went downstairs to help her mother. They spent the next couple of hours going through the boxes. Piper politely listened to her mother's chatter and comments on the items she found, she even recited some good memories about some of them.

Stacy looked over at the clock. "Oh, Piper you need to go to bed. You have school tomorrow, remember? I'll finish up here."

Piper nodded, relieved and went back up stares. She closed the door and walked around the room, making it seem like she was getting ready for bed just in case her mother was listening. Finally she pulled the box out from under her bed and opened it. There wasn't much in there. Just some gemstones, some at the end of strings, candles, and something that looked like some sort of herb or incense. But what really caught her eye was the large, black, leather bound book at the bottom of the box. There was a silver dragon embossed on the front of the book in the center. The dragon look regal, reared on its hind legs, wings flared out, and jaws open in a silent roar.

Piper carefully picked up the book and slowly opened it. It was an old book, with crinkled yellowing pages. As she opened it, an envelope flittered out and slipped under her bed, but she didn't notice it. On the first two pages was a list of women with dates. The last name was her grandmothers, the last day was her death day but the first date…well it definitely wasn't her birthday. Piper did the math in her head, the first date would have been somewhere around the time Meredith was fifteen or sixteen. _She would have been about my age…and these other women, I bet their my ancestors or something!_ She made a mental note to research it later. Even so, the number of women was enormous. It went back centuries and in the first few names, the lettering didn't even look like English, or any language she'd seen before.

Intrigued, Piper slowly browsed through the old book. There were pictures of strange creatures and text explaining them. There were some that looked like recipes, but it was for things that Piper had never heard of and some sounded completely worthless. And other things inside the book sounded suspiciously like spells, some for good and some for bad. "To Send A Soul To Hell" read one , then listed how to do it, another read "Calling A Spirit From Beyond", and "Summoning A Lost Witch". Piper's eyes widened slowly. _Oh my god. Grandmother Meredith really did deal with witchcraft! And now she's given this crap to me? What the hell is going on? None of this stuff can really work._ Piper shook her head and returned everything to the box, feeling uneasy. She pushed the box back under her bed, then changed into a pair of shorts and a baggy shirt. She crawled into bed, wondering why her grandmother gave her that stuff and what she should do with it. As she fell asleep, she once again dreamed of the two strange dragons, her pleading grandmother and the cloaked witches performing their spells.

*****

Piper walked into the school yard after getting out of her mother's car. She was a bit early so she'd have to hang around in the school yard until they opened the door to let the kids inside. She sat down at one of the tables under the shade of a tree. She saw Blade and his friends around the corner of the school smoking. At the other end of the school in a more field-like area, the schools track stars Hunter Jeanes and Artemis "Missy" Marshal had started a small game of soccer with some of their friends. Missy and Hunter were both Juniors, like Leiko. Piper looked around to see if any Sophomores she knew were around. She scowled slightly, seeing Vega Biancardi strutted into the school yard with her two clones Gina and Jenna on either side of her. Vega was tall, curvy, and blond. She had the looks that made every guy drool over her and she was the most popular girl of the Sophomore class, not to mention she ruled over Freshmen too and had quite a few influential friends in the Junior class too. Vega always wore expensive designer clothing, had perfectly styled hair and a bunch of wannabes following after her every single day. And since Gina and Jenna were her two main followers, they got most of the perks Vega had. Piper couldn't stand any of them, they were mean, stuck-up, rude, and pretty much the typical stereo-typed popular preppy girls. It was pathetic to see all those other kids crawling after them, sucking up for some attention.

The worst suck-up was definitely Jasper White. Jasper was a geeky guy: skinny, lanky, red-haired and freckled. He even had the glasses. He was pretty much a genius at school but had opted not to skip ahead a couple grades. He tried to hard to fit in with the popular crowd though, and Piper felt bad for him because the popular kids just laughed at him. _He could do so much better than them,_ Piper thought, _he's really a nice guy._

Vega and her wannabe's stopped in front of Piper's table. Vega cleared her throat and crossed her arms, obviously waiting for something. Piper blinked, obviously confused. Vega rolled her eyes. "You're in _our_ spot, mute."

"Yeah, so move it," Gina and Jenna chorused. They crossed their arms and struck the same pose as Vega, mirroring her narrowed-eyed expression as well.

Piper sighed and gathered her stuff. She didn't really want to deal with them so it was better to just do as they say.

"Since when is this _your_ spot? I don't see your names on it anywhere," another voice interrupted.

Piper turned her head to see Lieko, bright pink hair and all, standing behind her, arms crossed. Standing next to here was Ebony Moore, looking rather bored.

"We always sit here," Vega replied.

Leiko mocked concern. "Aw, how sad. Poor baby, I guess you won't be able to sit here today. Why don't you go cry to daddy about it so he'll buy it for you like he buys up everything else you want?"

Vega's eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists. Obvious frustration and disdain shone in her eyes, but Leiko was a Junior and Vega wasn't an idiot; everyone knew that no matter how popular you are in _your_ class, you never pick fights with an upperclassmen, especially not one who has a black belt in karate. Vega whirled around and stormed off, her two wanna-be clones casting Piper dirty glares before following Vega with their noses in the air.

Leiko slid into the seat across from Piper. Piper smiled her thanks to Leiko and the pink-haired Japanese-American girl merely shrugged and replied, "No problem. I can't stand girls like that. I hate how they think they're better than everyone else and try to use their looks, money and parents to get what they want."

Piper nodded in agreement, those types of people made her pretty sick too. **Isn't your family pretty rich, though, too?** she wrote.

"Yeah, but we aren't all that superficial and stuff. My dad is actually kind of against having too many material items that have nothing to do with the family. The most expensive things we have are heirlooms pasted down through the generations. My father is very traditional in his beliefs. We still have no idea why he even agreed to leave Japan to come to this small town. My mom just asked him and…it happened. Personally, I like living here than in Tokyo- it was too crowded back there."

**What about your brother?**

"Ash? He doesn't care as long as he has his music and can be the smartest kid around. Before we moved here, he was the smartest kid in his age group in all of Japan."

**So why is he only going to Community collage?**

Leiko smirked a little bit and rolled her eyes. "Ash is really protective of me so he wants to stick around until he thinks I can finally be OK on my own- which will probably be when I'm 60."

Piper smiled in a silent laughter. She really liked how Leiko treated her normally, and not like an invalid. That was when she noticed Leiko staring at her in thought and made a "What?" gesture.

"You need a make-over," was the simple reply.

Piper's eyes widened and she shook her head, mouthing "Nooo!"

"Yes! You're always hiding behind your hair but your eyes are amazing, and so is your bone structure. You could look amazing if you would wear something other than jeans and a baggy sweatshirt every day. Why do you think those preppy bitches treat you like shit? Its because they _know_ that you could look better than them if you tried and they hate it, so they treat you like crap so you'll keep up the whole 'I'm going to be invisible, I don't want to stand out' mentality."

**But I do want to be "invisible". I don't like when people stare at me. I don't want to stand out- its bad enough that people make a big deal over me being mute and always give me pity looks or just stare at me like a freak show. **

"You need a serious confidence boost. Where do you live? I'll come over after school." Leiko smiled, obviously not going to back down on her decision to give Piper a make-over.

Piper sighed, seeing there was no escape or a way to change Leiko's mind, so she ripped off a piece of paper and wrote her address on it. She passed it to Leiko who read it over and slipped it into her pocket.

"Cool. If you want, I could just drive you home after school."

**You can drive?**

Leiko laughed slightly. "Of course, silly! It's the only way I can get out of my brother driving me to school and then giving death glares to every good-looking guy around. I swear, Ash _really_ needs a girlfriend."

The two girls laughed again(well…technically Piper wasn't laughing but it was close enough). The bell rang and they got up and went to their next classes. Of course, in the hallway, Piper found that she was headed straight towards Vega and her clones. Piper couldn't see much of a way around them, so she merely looked down and let her hair fall across her face, hoping that she could slip by them. A perfectly manicured hand with fresh bright pink nail polish came forward, knocking her books out of her arms, the body to whom the hand belong to deliberately knocking Piper to the ground. Piper fell forward and caught her self with her hands, looking up to see Vega smirking over her.

"Oops. Sorry," Vega said in a voice that implied she was anything but. She and her wanna-be followers turned away, laughing as they walked off.

Piper sat up and began collecting her school books, notebooks, binder and any loose papers. Unfortunately, some of them had been kicked away by the crowd of people. As she stood up with what she could find and looked for the others, she felt someone tap her shoulder and turned around to see Hunter Jeanes, one of the best athletes in school and definitely one of the hottest. He was also holding the rest of her papers and notebooks out to her.

"Are these yours?" he asked.

Piper nodded and took them back, looking down while she blushed furiously and mouthe a thank you. Hunter smiled, running a hand through his golden spikey hair, his dark blue eyes looking at her he replied, "No problem. See you around." He gave her a slight wave and walked off, not noticing that she had mouthed the words instead of speaking them. No doubt he thought that she mumbled the words out of embarrassment and they were lost among the loud roar of the throng of students around them. Piper hurried off to her class, still not believing that Hunter had looked at her, let alone that he'd spoken to her. He had _never_ noticed her before, but then again who ever did? Lately it seemed that her luck was turning; for once one of her mother's boyfriends had a conscience, she had made a friend(thanks to Vega being a bitch), and Hunter Jeanes noticed her(thanks to Vega being a bitch)! And strangely, it was all after her grandmother died and left all that stupid witch craft stuff to her. _I wonder if its…_ Piper shook her head, sitting down in her seat, _Nah. I'm sure its all coincidence, or karma._

_

* * *

_

**(A/N: Next chapter: Piper gets a make-over!! And someone might find that stuff she hid under her bed. I wonder if she's the only one who inherited freaky stuff from her grandmother? Find out whenever I get the motivation to actually write about it! Which very well could be today. Who really knows with me, :D)**


End file.
